I've been complaining just a bit that I haven't caught any Carp on flies yet this year.
The fishing gods were listening.
Last night I visited a new (to me) pond in town. The bass and bluegills weren't very big. I saw some big fish, figured they were either Carp, Grass Carp, or both.
Didn't expect to catch one, so I started out fishing for bass & bluegills. I was using a microjig under an indicator...cast out along the shoreline, twitched it once or twice, and the indicator disappeared. I hadn't spotted the fish before it hit, so I wasn't sure what it was going to be. Based on the head shakes and awesome bulldogging fight, I was going to guess it was a Channel Catfish. But it was a small-ish carp!
I moved down along the shoreline a bit, and spotted a carp rooting in the mud. I dropped a fly near it a few times, and got a few takes, but missed the hookset each time, and eventually spooked it. I continued down along the pond, past some fenced-in dogs that were really giving me the business! I switched to a small Woolly Worm with a small glass beadhead, and fished that over some bluegill beds, catching a few. I made a longer cast down along the shoreline, got a good strike and had Carp #2 of the evening on the line! Another small-ish fish, but again a really good battle!
It got dark and I only caught a few more bluegills after that. And then I managed to wade through a large patch of poison ivy on my way back to the car in the (almost) dark...